AS I LAY DYING Announces New Album 'Through Storms Ahead'

With 25 years of reign and seven acclaimed albums under their belts, Grammy-nominated metalcore pioneers AS I LAY DYING are back with an unmissable new album that will define their legacy for years to come. Poised to be one of the most highly anticipated metal comebacks in years, the band's eighth full-length studio album, "Through Storms Ahead", will drop on November 15, 2024 via Napalm Records.

Featuring explosive new tracks "Burden" and "The Cave We Fear To Enter" — which arrived earlier this summer as the band's first new musical offerings in five years — "Through Storms Ahead" is an evolution of newly explored elements that further bolster the proven lineup of vocalist Tim Lambesis and guitarist Phil Sgrosso alongside recent newcomers Ryan Neff (bass, clean vocals),Nick Pierce (drums) and Ken Susi (guitar).

In celebration, AS I LAY DYING just dropped the eviscerating new metalcore anthem of the year "We Are The Dead". Featuring the gut-punching vocal talents of famed guest vocalists Alex Terrible (SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL) and Tom Barber (CHELSEA GRIN, DARKO),the latest album single arrives with an equally gripping new music video — proving equal parts mesmerizing, eerie and brutal. The video features appearances from both special guest vocalists.

Sgrosso offers about the track and video: "'We Are The Dead' represents the more brutal territory from our new album, spotlighting our thrashier tendencies that we still enjoy mixing in amongst our more melodic sound. I think this is the meanest we've ever gone in terms of aggression, and who better to join us than two of deathcore's finest, Alex Terrible of SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL and Tom Barber from CHELSEA GRIN. Shout out to our third-time video collaborator Tom Flynn for jumping in with us and pulling off another visually creative undertaking for the track."

Featuring immense, stunning production by guitarist Phil Sgrosso and Hiram Hernandez, mixing by Aaron Chaparian, mastering by Ted Jensen and album art once again created by Corey Meyers, "Through Storms Ahead" proves that good things come to those who wait. The album features crystal clear, punishingly precise technicality and quality — proving keen attention to detail and thoughtful exploration throughout "Through Storms Ahead".

A melancholic guitar-driven introduction track blasts into a deft explosion on first song "A Broken Reflection", showcasing the masterful melding of skills that the new incarnation of AS I LAY DYING brings to the table. The clean vocals of bassist Ryan Neff absolutely soar throughout, fortifying the high-end of the track's multi-layered attack of searing, heart-wrenching guitar harmonics, driving bass, pummeling drums and the furious low-end gutturals of iconic frontman Tim Lambesis. Streamed over a million times within days of its initial release, first single "Burden" annihilates with instantly gripping energy, charging in with an intensely catchy chorus, multiple breakdowns and ingenious guitar soloing from Phil Sgrosso. "Whitewashed Tomb" bleeds in with a cinematic underscore before its potent vocal lines, hair-raising, rhythmic guitar leads and ominous, reverberating electronic atmosphere takes over. Melodic "The Void Within" and "Taken From Nothing" evoke classic AS I LAY DYING style blended with modernized metalcore passages, while tracks such as "Strength To Survive" and "Gears That Never Stop" showcase the vital songwriting prowess of the band in 2024. Blending metallic battery with dominant accessibility, the tracks further attest that "Through Storms Ahead" won't pause for a single moment of mediocrity. Title track "Through Storms Ahead" bludgeons with intense drums and an earworm chorus, while acclaimed second single "The Cave We Fear To Enter" begins pensively before charging into an emotive melodic metalcore opus.

"Through Storms Ahead" track listing:

01. Permanence
02. A Broken Reflection
03. Burden
04. We Are The Dead (feat. Alex Terrible, Tom Barber)
05. Whitewashed Tomb
06. Through Storms Ahead
07. The Void Within
08. Strength To Survive
09. Gears That Never Stop
10. The Cave We Fear To Enter
11. Taken From Nothing

AS I LAY DYING is preparing to kick off their massive European "Through Storms Ahead Tour", featuring support from CALIBAN, DECAPITATED and OV SULFUR, on November 15 in Würzburg, Germany. Before those shows, U.S. fans can catch AS I LAY DYING at the iconic New England Metal & Hardcore Festival on September 22.

In June 2022, drummer Jordan Mancino announced that he would sit out AS I LAY DYING's tour due to "a number of ongoing internal issues" that "have not yet been resolved."

Mancino's announcement came less than a month after bassist/vocalist Josh Gilbert revealed that he was leaving the band. In a statement, the remaining members of AS I LAY DYING said that Gilbert "decided to exit" the group "to pursue other musical opportunities."

Josh was the second AS I LAY DYING member to leave the band in less than a year. In August 2021, guitarist Nick Hipa confirmed his exit from AS I LAY DYING, explaining that he could no longer justify being part of "a superficial pursuit" of the "story and meaning" that the band's 2018 reunion was built upon.

Lambesis was famously convicted in 2014 for his role in a murder-for-hire plot against his estranged wife.

In May 2014, Lambesis was sentenced to six years in jail after pleading guilty to paying a San Diego police officer posing as a hitman $1,000 to kill his wife. Approximately two and a half years later — on December 17, 2016 — he was discharged from a California detention facility and was transferred to the Division of Adult Parole Operations.

In June 2018, AS I LAY DYING played its first show with Lambesis in five years and released a new single. Lambesis also owned up to his crimes in a long apology on the band's Facebook page after his release.

The return of AS I LAY DYING raised some questions, particularly since Hipa categorically denounced the band's disgraced frontman as a "sociopathic narcissist in definite need of rehabilitation" in a social-media post back in 2014.

In September 2021, AS I LAY DYING released a new song called "Roots Below" which was originally a B-side leftover from when the sessions for "Shaped By Fire".

Photo credit: Ben Alexis